Bass Coast Post - Kit Sleeman

The old Tech School

14/5/2018

Wonthaggi Technical School, 1963. Photo: State Rivers and Water Commission, courtesy of State Library of Victoria

Wonthaggi Technical School, 1963

By Kit Sleeman

THE enlightened town fathers from the early days of Wonthaggi reserved large blocks of land adjacent to the shopping centre for their development into homes for a primary school and, later, a secondary school, which would eventually emerge as a uniquely combined technical/high school. Their wisdom has served the town well.

I attended both from 1957 in prep at primary to Leaving Certificate in 1968 at ‘The Tech’.

Gravity

10/9/2016

Billy cart kid: David Read, 1966. Photo: Lake Macquarie City Library

From billy carts to tin toboggans, steep slopes were a source of pleasure for the kids in Kit Sleeman’s neighbourhood.

Watery wonderland

18/6/2016

Baxters wetland, part of Wonthaggi's extensive drainage system

Wonthaggi’s stormwater drains were a constant source of surprise and adventure for kids, writes Kit Sleeman

Night-time visitors

21/5/2016

Kit Sleeman looks back to an age of real service when fresh milk and bread appeared on the kitchen table every morning as if by magic.

Earthly treasures

2/4/2016

Mr Trelawny would pay a shilling or more for a good horse mushroom.

Foraging for mushrooms was one of the great autumn pleasures, and a profitable sideline, for a young Kit Sleeman.

The miners' picnic

13/2/2016

Gerry Gee and partner

Kit Sleeman recalls a memorable miners’ picnic at Cowes, enlivened by a foul-mouthed ventriloquist and a storm-tossed voyage home.

The great space race

17/10/2015

As the Americans and Russians battled for supremacy in space, a young Kit Sleeman scanned the skies from Wonthaggi.

Sounds of silence

15/8/2015

Wonthaggi mine whistle

From his sickbed, Kit Sleeman listened to the sounds of Wonthaggi. More than 50 years later and far away, they are still vivid to him.

The Liberal who nearly went down with the ship

1/8/2015

Sir Arthur Warner

Between 1901 and 1959, Wreck Beach at Harmers Haven proved the undoing of a mammoth whale and two sea captains, including Wonthaggi’s most hated man.

Elephant hunting in Wonthaggi

9/5/2015

For the children of small towns, a travelling circus was the stuff of dreams. Kit Sleeman recalls the days when small boys stalked elephants in the Wonthaggi scrubland.

Corner of McBride Avenue and Graham Street, Wonthaggi, 1915.

The Sannes of Kilcunda

25/2/2015

Emily Alice Sanne, 1939

By Kit Sleeman

THE Sannes were a pioneering family of Kilcunda. Sanne is a name Swedish in origin and my Great Aunt Millie, born in the 1880s, was the last Australian family member to remain in contact with the Swedish ancestral family.